er of snow and
ice, while below him, down in the depths of the gorge, the earth is
clear of the wintry pall and frowns up in gloomy contrast. The sparse
vegetation, too, has changed its appearance. Here towers the silent,
portentous pine, but of a type vaster than can be seen in any other
corner of the earth. The man hastens on with all the speed his weary
limbs will permit, stumbling as he goes, for the frost of the high
altitudes has entered his bones, and he cannot now feel the touch of the
broken earth. But his yearning heart is ceaseless in its despairing cry.
Where--where is She? The trees come up higher and higher and the gloom
closes in upon him as he reaches the barrier.

Now he pauses under a mighty archway. Below, it is black with age and
full of crowding shadows; the superstructure alone is hung with snowy
frost curtains, and these help to emphasize the forbidding nature of the
dark, narrow under-world. Down, down he goes, as though he were
journeying to the very bowels of the earth, heedless of the place,
heedless of all but the phantom he seeks. Again his surroundings have
changed. The barrenness is emphasized by skeleton-like trees of such
size as no man has ever seen before. High up aloft there is foliage upon
them, but so meagre, so torn and wasted as to suggest a wreck of
magnificent life. These gigantic trunks are few in number, but so huge
that the greatest elm would appear a sapling beside them, and yet their
wondrous size would not be properly estimated. They are the primordial
pines, survivors from an unknown period. They shelter nothing but
barrenness, and stand out alone like solemn sentries, the watchmen for
all time of the earth's most dim and secret recesses, where storms
cannot reach, and scarcely the forest beasts dare penetrate.

Again the poor benighted brain finds relief. Down beside these monsters
his eyes are gladdened once more with the fleeting vision. He sees the
figure moving ahead, but slowly now; no longer is she the gay laughing
creature he has hitherto followed, she moves wearily, as though
exhausted by the journey she has taken. His heart thrills with hope and
joy, for now he knows that he is overtaking her. Her face is hidden from
him, and even her fair form has taken on something of the hue of her
dark surroundings.

"Aim-sa! Aim-sa!" he cries aloud. And again "Aim-sa!"

The gorge rings solemnly with the hoarse echoes, and the place is filled
with discordant sounds which